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Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center is a 501(c)(3) organization. We are dedicated to protecting our air, water and open spaces. We investigate problems, craft solutions, educate the public and decision-makers, and help the public make their voices heard in local, state and national debates over the quality of our environment and our lives.

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Our research and public education work are made possible by tax-deductible contributions from generous citizens and foundations

It’s 2017 — we should be able to power our lives without polluting our environment. We have the ability to produce and consume energy and still enjoy healthy communities — and give our children and their children a livable future. That’s why we’re calling on cities, universities, businesses, and our state governments to commit to 100% renewable energy.

More Research, Policy, Education & Action

For more than 26 years, states in the Chesapeake Bay region have attempted to clean up the Bay, but it continues to choke on a lethal overdose of pollution. In order to achieve a clean, sustainable Bay, states in the Bay watershed will have to reduce nitrogen levels in Bay waters another 30 percent and reduce phosphorus by an additional 8 percent—in spite of a projected population increase of 30 percent by the year 2030. Reductions of that magnitude will only be possible if governments target all the watershed’s sources of nutrient pollution.

Phosphorus from manure applied to farmland is a major source of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Intensive chicken production, particularly on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, generates large volumes of manure. Growers and farmers often spread this manure on their fields as fertilizer, but when applied in excess, the nutrients that make manure useful for fertilizing crops also contribute to dead zones in the bay.

More than 800,000 of us called on the Environmental Protection Agency to close loopholes in the Clean Water Act. And in May, they answered by finalizing a rule to restore protections to the more than 20 million acres of wetlands, 60% of streams, and drinking water for 117 million Americans.

Americans will consume less oil, create less smog and cut our global warming emissions, thanks to Clean Cars rules we helped implement in 14 states. Those state victories paved the way for President Obama to announce new nationwide clean car standards in 2011, which amount to the single biggest step this country has taken to end our addiction to oil and tackle global warming.

We should be doing everything we can to support healthy food and sustainable agriculture. Yet the U.S. House recently voted to eliminate programs that encourage local farming — even as billions are sent to factory farms that foul our air and water. Environment Maryland delivered more than one thousand postcards to Gov. Martin O'Malley this summer in support of programs that would help local, sustainable farmers compete.

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After our research helped shine a media spotlight on the health problems mercury can cause for young children and babies in utero, the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that power plants in Maryland and across the country must reduce the amount of mercury they emit by 90 percent.

In conjunction with our national federation, we helped convince the Environmental Protection Agency to set smart new limits on the amount of smog-forming carbon pollution that new coal-fired power plants can emit — an important victory for the countless Marylanders who suffer from asthma, which is exacerbated by smog.

We’ve helped educate thousands of people across the state about the threat global warming poses to our economy and public health, showing that a majority of Texans live in counties that experienced federal weather disasters between 2006 and 2011, and that global warming loads the dice for more extreme weather events.

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Building a greener future
Environment Maryland Research & Policy Center gratefully accepts bequests, beneficiary designations of IRAs and life insurance, and gifts of securities to support our work. Your gift will assure that we can continue to protect Maryland's air, water and open spaces for future generations